A family of Barred Owls are very popular among my local birding community. When I went to visit, the two fledged Owlets were in the dark woods, but one of the parents came out into the open - perhaps to be sure that we kept away from her kids.

When my family was bored, we went to a small forest/park near home that had a boardwalk leading into the swamp. We saw one there- only a few feet in front of us. The lady that worked their for 16 years said she had only seen one once at night, and this was our first time at the place and we saw one in broad daylight! It was so pretty- it started an owl craze. Did you know that South Carolina is the only place where a Barred Owl has yellow eyes, supposedly? This is one of my favorite birds!

Glad you liked that shot Melissa...thank you! I actually shot that with my old Canon film camera along a taxiway. I have quite a few other bird shots (including all sorts of other wildlife and scenic shots) in my gallery if you'd like to check them out ~[link]